The Heart of a Sith
by SilentFacet
Summary: Not your typical Star Wars story. Set in the same galaxy, but not a part that many know of. The three main characters are all original characters but the setting and opposing characters are all canon to a Wizard's RPG.
1. Chapter 1

Three speeders skidded to a stop at the head of a long, deep canyon valley throwing up torrents of loose sand which fell quickly back to the earth in the cold stillness of the morning. The first to arrive, a young man in dark robes, quickly slid off of his bike. Anxiety played across his eyes as he began his search, the rest of his face hidden behind a mask.

"Where should we start looking, Master Mondrak?" he asked as he peered though the narrow gap at the entrance to the valley.

"I think asking might point us in the right direction," replied the older woman slyly as she slowed the engine and dismounted her own speeder hoisting a small but laden sack over her shoulder. The final speeder ground to a halt next to her driven a slight, sickly girl who, by appearance, should not have been able to manage a speeder by herself. The girl methodically shut off the engine and slid off, making sure that she kept the staff she carried near to her body.

The boy watched carefully as his master took a few steps forward, then stopped just before passing the narrow section at the rift's head. She stood tall as always, with complete confidence in her knowledge. He considered her as she gazed into the shadowed gloom. She was not particularly like the other masters. But of course she wouldn't be, she was a Sith. Not just in the sense that she had joined the Sith, she was a Sith, one of the original race. She had leaned from her masters the ways of the Force without the undertones of the battles waged against the Jedi because they had not heard of the Jedi. She had even been there on Ziost when the Dark Jedi first came into their power and took the title of Dark Lords of the Sith. As many Masters contemplated and considered only for the future, she worked from the past. Her spirit itself was… organic compared to the other Lords' teachings at the Academy. She would be the first to tell an enemy his strengths and praise his achievements, but somehow in the same moment lay bare his weaknesses and faults and even the deepest secrets of his life.

In the gray light and against the soil of her home world she seemed even more organic, as her deep red skin appeared to fade into the very shadows of the rusted crags behind her and the Sith tattoos across her body fell among the darker crevices. She had not yet reveled to anyone how she had lived so long, but only her long coarse silver-gray hair hinted at the many years she had wandered the galaxy.

As the sun peaked over the horizon, Mondrak turned her attention to the runes cut into the rock face, reached up and traced their faint weathered outlines with her fingers, muttering their meanings under her breath. The heat and texture of the stone took her mind back to the first time she had been here. She had stood here prior to many of these runes being carved into the cliff wall, and the ones that had, were fresh and jagged not worn smooth by centuries of wind as the inscription beneath her fingers now was. This time though, he was not being brought to the valley, but patiently decomposing beyond its entrance.

She lowered her hand and took a step back and spoke a few lines in a harsh and noticeably ancient tongue. The young man's ears perked up. He had been studying this language for years knowing that there were none alive who still spoke it. After all this time, there is still much I can learn from her, he though as he began slowly repeated what she said, his head bent in thought. 'We intend no harm to the dead. You will suffer us to pass.'

Upon realizing the words he had translated, he looked up to see whom his master was speaking to, but there was no one, and nothing had happened.  
Mondrak turned back to the two students, "To Dathka's tomb, then?"  
She walked through the entrance to the valley without hindrance and began down the dim, snaking path towards the tombs.

The young man stood there stunned, staring after his master. A moment later he realized that his mouth was hanging open and he was still standing there alone with Jara. "You're really not one for conversation, are you?" he asked, thankful for his mask and shaking his head he starting down the path after Mondrak.

Jara simply returned a blank stare, no life was behind her wisps of frail hair that hung over her black eyes. She watched Sinclair turn and follow the red woman, and giving the stones at the entrance one last calculating look, she began her own decent into the valley.


	2. Chapter 2

The stone archway over the tomb was scarred with blaster holes and deep cracks. Inside the air felt stale and dead. Mondrak ignited her red lightsaber to give a little light, producing sharp, eerie shadows across the faces of the rock, revealing innumerous primitively carved runes covering the walls. The two students followed her cautiously through the mouth of the cave and squinted into the unnaturally lit cavern. The tomb inside was more expansive that would have appeared from the valley, containing a large raised sarcophagus beside a pedestal long empty and coated with dust.

Tara paused near the entrance and watched as Sinclair followed a few steps behind his master and turned to inspect the runes in the stone wall. The young girl stood in the brackish light clutching her archaic staff, still unsure of exactly why they were here. She had found her way to Korriban only days ago, after waking up only one week ago; waking up from death. She looked down at her hands around the hilt of the staff she carried, she knew they were gray even in the surreal light, she knew there was no real life in them, she knew the only life in her stemmed from what was in her hands. When the Dark Lady had determined this back in the Academy, she had said that there was a better way, and told Tara to follow. That was all, there was no further explanation. Tara sighed and looked back up with her eyes now adjusted to the darkness of the tomb.

In the far corner, the huddled silhouette of a sole man could now be dimly seen trembling as though weak from exhaustion. The troubled man had not realized the others have entered the tomb, but he spoke to himself in barely a whisper; a pleading, sorrowful chant. "Dathka… the lost ones… they took it, they took your heart… they took it from me. Dathka, my friend… how can they know you? How can they find you? We must find them… the survivors…"

Stopping short, Mondrak threw out her arm to hold the two students back, urgently whispering, "Do nothing to alarm him. He is cursed and he will do anything to those he finds with the heart crystal. I did not expect him to be here."

Tara and Sinclair looked back at her confused for a moment before Sinclair spots the ragged figure and Tara finally realizes what they are here for.

Mondrak glanced back at the man looking slightly concerned, then recomposed herself, and turned back to him. Softly but sternly she addressed the trembling man: "Naz, the survivors are not here, why are you? They took the heart and you must find it. It is not here, so go to the plains and search for it. The lost ones will not harm you." She reached her mind out to him, but as expected, found only broken fragments of a former life and the obsession that had claimed them.

A crazed and excited expression came over his face as Naz turned in their direction, though he did not actually look at any of the party, but rather past them as though they were only voices. "Will you not help me? You could find it, you are strong. If you would help me find it, master, poor Dathka will be whole again…" He trembled and stuttered as though he did not deeply believe in what he was saying.

Mondrak's eyes softened slightly with a trace of pity. "No, Naz. You will be the one helping me." She quickly took the few steps to stand along side the sarcophagus and placed her hands out flat on its stone cover. Sinclair followed at her heels and watched and listened raptly as she closed her eyes and began whispering in the same ancient language 'I have another _kaar_ for you, _taral_, but we need to have your heart…'

Sinclair swore in his head, there were still words he did not recognize.

Tara watched as the woman placed her hands on the sarcophagus, and was the only one to see the deranged man's eyes widen in aghast fear. Before another thought passed her mind, Tara was shoved aside and to the ground as Naz, apparently reacting to the Dark Lady's words, fled flailing yet determinately out of the cave.

Hearing the commotion, Mondrak whipped her head around just in time to see Naz sprinting out of the tomb. "Follow him!", she cried, and leapt after him, chasing him deeper into the valley.


End file.
